Where The Story Ends
by Lothian
Summary: "I love you." And when Neji replied, the whole world - Shikamaru's world - fell to pieces.   ShikaNeji


"Help me."

**…**

It was a small broken whisper. Cold like a winter breeze. Thin like paper, flat like monochrome colours.

"_Please_ help me."

Thin hands with frail white fingers lifted to clutch at coffee coloured locks of hair. Blue veins were visible branching out like spider webs.

_Please, please, please…_

Icy blue eyes, which reminded Neji of glaciers, stared down at him. The faces were leering maliciously, lips curling in disgust. They were whispering, each whisper breaking Neji to his core.

Then one man, one man who looked too much like his father lifted his hands together. Formed seals.

_Please, please, please, please, please…_

The man's mouth opened shouted words. Neji trembled, a mini earthquake. He fought. Struggled. Held on.

_Shikamaru…_

The name brought back too fresh memories. But it was like sucking on a sweet like Neji had when he was a child. It was so comforting.

His head seared. Neji screamed. He fell. His knees collided with cold marble. He collapsed.

And then the world bled.

**…**

It was dark and oh so cold. So _cold_…

**…**

Shikamaru was running. His heart was hammering a painful tattoo against his ribcage. He coughed and could feel bile rising in his throat.

The hallway was too white. Too empty. Too quiet. The echoes were creepy. Empty. It was such a long way to run, oh so long. Too long. His legs were shaking. Trembling. He couldn't go on…

_"Help me."_

Shikamaru felt his heart flutter. His throat close up. His eyes sting.

Echoes were scary weren't they? Especially when they were made of Neji's voice. Neji's voice wasn't mean to be empty.

He continued to run.

**…**

"Hyuuga Neji is dead."

**…**

Tsunade wasn't hearing right. Surely.

**…**

"He died due to the affair he was carrying on with another unnamed man."

**…**

Naruto could not feel the world beneath his feet. It had been pulled out from under him.

**…**

"The affair he was having was scandalous, crude and revolting."

**… **

Hinata could not – would not look at her father, the man who had put her cousin in his coffin. Her knees gave way. She collapsed. A tear escaped. And so the rain poured.

**…**

Shikamaru stopped in front of the door. His knees were shaking. His fingers trembling.

_I'm falling apart at the seams. Can't you tell?_

**…**

Hiashi surveyed the crumpled body before him. Brown hair tumbled in a chocolate pool around Neji's head. Hiashi turned. He could not look.

**…**

Shikamaru could remember Neji's smile. Neji's eyes.

"Neji…"

**…**

This is the Hyuuga Elimination Compound.

**…**

"What are you doing here?"

Shikamaru's gaze alighted on Hanabi. Hinata's younger sister. She was terrified. Her face white. Her skin damp with sweat.

"Open the goddamned door."

"I can't…" Her whisper felt like a scream.

"Open it, for fuck's _sake_, open the door!" A cold sharp something, a bit like glass had lodged itself in his heart. Panic.

Hanabi was shaking. A small tear landed on the floor.

"It's too late now…" Again that whispered scream.

**…**

Shikamaru could hear a cracking sound somewhere deep inside him. He ignored it.

The door gave way easily.

**…**

White eyes turned upon the intruder. White eyes so unlike Neji's mauve ones. So ice-like. So cold Shikamaru nearly shivered.

**…**

And then he saw him.

**…**

They had covered him with a white blanket. Someone stood over him, knife in hand long brown strands of hair in the other. A Hyuuga elder.

Shikamaru did not need to think twice. His shadow grew extending to where the Hyuuga stood, and the Elder froze as shadow hands gripped his throat.

**…**

_You don't need water to feel like you're drowning._

**…**

Gagging filled the empty room and the remaining few elders cursed attempting to get close enough to Shikamaru to stop him. Shadows merely sprang from him, contrasting horribly with the white walls, choking, stopping, killing anyone who dared try to stop him.

**…**

The room was awfully quiet.

_Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. Tic…_

The clock chose that moment to stop.

**…**

If it hadn't been for the angry purple hands on their necks, the Hyuuga Elders might have been playing a game of sleeping lions.

**… **

Shikamaru picked the limp rag doll body of the floor.

Neji's hair fell like a waterfall to the ground. Shikamaru tenderly rubbed his thumb in circular motions over Neji's cheekbone.

"Wake up."

Neji did not stir.

"Come on Neji. Don't fuck around. You can wake _up_ now." Shikamaru could hear his voice shaking, cracking along an invisible fault line.

Neji looked so pale. He was so cold. Shikamaru's gaze lifted from Neji's seemingly sleeping eyes to his forehead. The curse mark was black.

A sob echoed throughout the room.

**…**

Snow spiraled down in soft movements. Alighted upon the earth staying there. Like a fluffy white blanket covering the world. Silencing the sounds. Silencing the emotions. The grief.

**…**

"Nara Shikamaru."

**…**

Naruto looked up into Tsunade's gaze. There were ghosts were her eyes would usually be.

**…**

"Nara Shikamaru is the one who murdered the Hyuuga Elders. Although he remains missing, the village Elders have been presented with the evidence and have found Nara Shikamaru guilty. He has been charged with the willful murders of the Hyuuga Elders. Your mission is very simple. You must find him." Tsunade's gaze shifted at this point focusing on something invisible behind Naruto's shoulder. "Bring him back to Konoha. Dead or alive."

**…**

In the woods nothing moved except a lone figure. It seemed to bend as though carrying something.

Or someone.

**…**

Shikamaru set down Neji's body. Neji's face was oh so white.

_"There once was a young girl with hair as black as coal, lips as red blood and skin as white as snow…"_

A fairy tale Shikamaru's mother had told him once.

_"She was the fairest in all the land…"_

**…**

In the forest with no name another man moved. He was hooded and he carried several corpses with him. One of the bodies bore a headband with Konoha's symbol on it.

Orochimaru was so hungry. Bonding with Kabuto's body had been an error. Such a huge miscalculation. So foolish…

He moved on.

**…**

Shikamaru gently brushed Neji's hair away from the sleeping man's face.

"Please wake up. I'm no good with jokes like these."

No reaction.

Shikamaru gently traced Neji's curse seal. So intricate. So lovely. So black. Black, black, black. And Neji was so cold… So cold…

Shikamaru tore of his cloak and wrapped it around Neji's shoulders.

"There… You'll be much warmer now… And when you feel that you've scared me enough… You can wake up… Please… Please, please, please…"

**…**

Orochimaru was hungry.

**…**

His body dragged. He needed a new subordinate. Someone who would be able to get him food. Someone who was young and would last a long time to come. With stamina. With strength. He needed someone like Sasuke.

Orochimaru's lips twisted in revulsion at the thought of the Uchiha brat. Trying to overpower him…

He was so hungry…

**…**

The fire was slowly melting the snow around it. Shikamaru could see a snowdrop slowly emerging, head titled towards the sky, seeking some warmth, some sunlight…

Shikamaru knew what it was like to search for something and not find it.

**…**

Orochimaru could feel a warmth in the breeze.

Food.

**…**

Shikamaru heard the crack of a twig, the crunch of snow underfoot.

A figure soon stood before him, fangs bared in a snake like manner.

Fear gripped his heart.

**…**

Orochimaru could not believe his luck. Here was someone young. And not just anyone. The genius of Konoha. But what was that scent? Death…

Orochimaru found the crumpled figure lying on a bundle of blankets. Face white, lips red, hair dark.

**…**

For there once was a man as white as snow.

**…**

"Don't hurt Neji, please don't hurt Neji."

Orochimaru smiled.

**…**

A hand was extended towards Shikamaru.

"I can bring him back."

**…**

Shikamaru could not believe his ears.

"You can wake him up?"

**…**

Orochimaru blinked bemusedly. The man had cracked. But… The technique required to bring the dead man back was simple. He could remember offering Tsunade to bring her brother and her lover back. How foolish she was not to accept.

**…**

"Yes."

**…**

It took Neji thirty-six hours, twenty-seven minutes and eleven point two seconds to wake up.

Not that Shikamaru was counting.

**…**

Long, long lashes lifted.

**…**

"Sh-Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru cupped Neji's face in his hands. Why was Neji so cold?

He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and clutched him possessively to his chest.

"I'm scared."

**…**

The words shook Shikamaru to the core.

**…**

"It's okay. It's going to be okay. I will protect you."

Neji's empty gaze was starting to unnerve Shikamaru. He could not see himself in those sky-like eyes. Shikamaru tried to lock eyes with him. And he did. But Neji's stare went right through him.

It hurt. Cut him to the core, so much so that Shikamaru knew he would never, could never be whole again. It was so numbing.

Shikamaru lifted a hand to Neji's chest. There was no heartbeat. The familiar thud that Shikamaru had come to know was not present.

"Oh, fuck. Fuck… Please god no… Fuck…" So, this is what it felt like to feel your world shattering to pieces around you. You couldn't even begin to look at the pieces.

Neji cocked his head to one side, in a child-like innocent manner.

"Are you scared too?"

Shikamaru could feel himself shaking.

"It's going to be okay. I'm going to protect you. They can't hurt you again."

If his eyes remained fierce, then by god his voice was starting to crumble.

Shikamaru kissed Neji's cheek.

"Shikamaru…"

"Shh…" Shikamaru murmured against his cheek. "It's alright. It's going to be alright."

Shikamaru shook.

"It's going to be alright… It's going…"

He shook harder.

"…to… be…"

Shikamaru's fingers clutched Neji's face tightly – tighter than before.

"…alright…"

Desperately Shikamaru kissed Neji's mouth, moving his lips on top of his cold, unresponsive ones with brusque need. Shikamaru pulled Neji's face closer, pressing his lips harder against Neji's. His mouth claimed the entirety of Neji's lips, his tongue sinking deeply between Neji's teeth. When he pulled away he was panting.

"It's going to be alright…" Shikamaru breathed in Neji's parted, damp lips.

"…forever and ever."

**… **

"Shikamaru, why has my heart stopped beating?"

"It's nothing Neji, don't worry about it."

"Shikamaru, why has my heart stopped beating?"

"… is it hurting?"

"Shikamaru, why has my heart stopped beating?"

"…"

"Shikamaru, why has my heart stopped beating?"

"I love you."

**…**

Neji looked at him, looking into Shikamaru's eyes. Shikamaru smiled at him. Neji smiled right back. Shikamaru's eyes softened.

**…**

"Shikamaru, why has my heart stopped beating?"

**

* * *

AN: Thanks for reading. :) Any feedback is appreciated. :)**


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